Chapter 982: A Quick Therapy Session

"Ahhh! Help! Someone save me! Help! Help!" The sounds of a woman’s screams were heard as she was dragged into a vacant room. After being shoved inside and the door shut behind her, her screams ceased and a pout formed on her face.

"Seriously? Not one saviour? Unbelievable..." Gabrielle sulked as she found a chair and planted herself in it, folding her arms and looking away from Hugo as he approached.

"It’s your own fault for running so far into the palace. No visitors would have any reason to be here." Hugo declared, finding and pushing a small desk over to where Gabrielle was and used it as a chair.

He looked at Gabrielle, going over in his head how susceptible she was to listening to him. Her body language was angry, but her knees were pointed towards him and she was sitting up straight. She was at least willing to discuss events, even if she was being stubborn about it.

He smiled and got into his doctor mindset. "Ok, Gabrielle. I am not deaf, I heard you and the Princess discuss today in great detail. Today is a big day for you isn’t it? Why don’t you tell me what you are doing today?"

Gabrielle rolled her eyes, but swiftly a smile crept onto her face. "Today is the day I finally expose myself to my son. I am finally going to let him know who I really am to him."

"I see. And why today? What has changed since the last time you wanted to tell him?"

Gabrielle’s smile grew greater at Hugo’s question.

"Well, it’s obvious, I got seriously hurt in battle. On a side note, we need to add a new classification for above warlords, as I’ve fought warlords before and that thing was too strong. Anyway, from what Hailey and a few teeny weeny breachings of military reports, I know that Apollo went AWOL due to my injury. That proves the thing I needed to know before I told him. He cannot live without me."

"Mhm. I see. Are you sure that is the reason he went AWOL? Apollo is a Sentinel, he is allowed to veer from the path in regards to tactics. Perhaps he just wanted to go at it alone?" Hugo asked, his question he thought reasonable.

Gabrielle just let out a soft chuckle before saying, "Oh Hugo. Hugo, Hugo, Hugo. You simple giraffe of a man."

"Hey!-"

"-Don’t you really think I didn’t take that into consideration upon learning about it? Of course I did. But I also spent months behind enemy lines with my son. I learnt how he thinks. He is tactical and a little reckless, but tactical is his biggest trait. If he was just pissed off, he would have taken the whole squad back out and continued what we were doing. But no. He went alone. Knowing not one, but two warlords were hunting his hide. He was angered because I was hurt. Because deep down, even if he doesn’t yet know it himself. He loves me just like I love him."

Hugo frowned, pressure was beginning to build up in his eye socket, a common side effect of his injury that flared up when Gabrielle was around and causing him stress. Resisting the urge to knuckle his eyepatch, he asked.

"I see. So you think Apollo is ready to hear the truth? Alright. Let’s say that both he and you are ready for this. Dropping this on him, even if you think he loves you-"

"-He does love me!" Gabrielle snapped.

"My mistake. Dropping this on him, even with him loving you, this is going to be big, big news for him and will shake both of your lives into a new course. Tell me, what do you hope to gain out of telling him this today?"

"Are you inept? I’m hoping to reunite with my son, officially." Gabrielle shrugged her shoulders and proceeded to stare at Hugo like he was a dunce.

Hugo took a deep breath and resisted the urge to think about a nice cold milkshake and clarified. "No, what I meant is, what do you hope to gain out of your ’new’ status as his mother. As I recall, one of your plans, if you couldn’t get into his heart, was to... *Ahem* get into his pants. Is that still something you hope to achieve? Something you still want once he sees you as his mother?"

For the first time in this conversation, Gabrielle looked at Hugo with a serious face. Her eyes were contemplative and took a few moments to gather her thoughts before replying.

"I will not deny that the thought of being with him that way has crossed my mind more than a few times during my planning. I clearly have a complex towards my baby, that I won’t deny as many actions of his turn me on beyond belief and I might have laid awake a few nights with him keeping me company and my hands acting as a substitute for-"

"Omega 2, stay on topic... Please stay on topic." Hugo pulled rank and ordered Gabrielle to avert the conversation elsewhere for the good of his sanity.

Gabrielle ceased at once and collected herself. "So, I have thought about it. I have seen his member, and on his birthday, I accidentally touched it and ran away swiftly after in embarrassment."

Hugo grimaced hearing that, but allowed Gabrielle to continue.

"But in my current plan. I do not have that goal in mind. I haven’t been sexually active in nineteen years and honestly, I could easily go for all eternity without having sex again if it means I can finally be a mommy to my child. It’s all I want. It’s all I have ever wanted. It was what those eighteen years of grieving was about. It was the reason I awakened. Because without my baby, I was no longer a person. I was an object. But someway, somehow, he returned to me. My second chance is here. I want my son to know his mother is sorry. I want my son to feel my love. And now, after months of building up a relationship with him, I am finally ready to tell him the truth."

Hugo sat in silence for a few minutes as he took in everything Gabrielle had said. Gabrielle was getting antsy waiting for him to say something, but that swiftly disappeared as Hugo did something she didn’t expect.

Feeling the large arms wrap around her and pull her in tight, she wanted to break free, but he then spoke. "While I still have some reservations about your plan, and about Apollo himself if I am being honest. You have clearly thought this through with great detail."

"So what? You aren’t going to stop me?" Gabrielle asked.

"Stop you? Gabrielle, you are a grown woman, I have no right to stop you, I just wanted to make sure you were telling him for the right reasons. That you were mentally sound. As it’s been my job for years. Though if it helps at all, you do have my blessing and I wish you the best of luck."

Gabrielle let herself relax and hugged Hugo back like the big teddy bear he was. "Thank you. It means a lot to me when you lose that stick up your ass and let me do what I want."

"And you ruined it." Hugo pulled back from the hug, but was still smiling at Gabrielle. "So, are you going to tell him now?"

Gabrielle shook her head. "No, I had planned on telling him by now to be honest, but that was twenty seven iterations of the plan ago. I am now on iteration twenty eight due to all the interruptions.

The best cause of action is to go back by his side. Get him drunk to the point he starts speaking in third person, and then wait till the end of the night. It’s best now that he has a good time. The last thing I want is to ruin the night now if I am somehow wrong about my reasons."

Hugo nodded. "Fair enough, I might be able to witness the admission then? I would love to be there as moral support."

Gabrielle laughed softly. "Oh, Hugo. Hugo, Hugo, Hugo, you big, wide ox of a man."

"Ok, that one was-"

"-You are not to come near us again for the rest of the night. Your interference with trapping me in this room has already sent me ahead five iterations. I don’t need more anomalies to my plan. You stay away from Apollo, you stay away from me and you stay away from the rest of the group or so help me I will burn your house to the ground."

Hugo wanted to laugh at Gabrielle’s ’joke’, but her eyes were not joking. "Understood, I’ll keep my distance.

Hearing that, Gabrielle smiled innocently at Hugo. "Great! See you later. And by later I of course don’t mean today. Bye~"

Gabrielle then left the room and Hugo instantly began to knuckle his eyepatch to relieve some stress.

He then absentmindedly went to sit in the chair Gabrielle had been sitting in and as soon as his weight made contact with the chair, the chair, despite groaning and struggling with all its might, ceased functionality.

Lying on his back on the floor, Hugo let out a long, exasperated sigh and thought aloud,

"Yep... It’s Milkshake time."